When connecting a new device to a computer system running a contemporary operating system such as Microsoft® Windows, the system or user typically installs a device driver. In addition, the user will often have to install one or more application programs that make use of the device. For example, a device manufacturer may provide an application program on a CD-ROM with the device.
Computer device manufacturers alternatively expect their devices to be used with particular application programs that are independently installed on the device, such as one or more third-party programs that are relevant to the device. For example, a media player device may be designed to work with Windows® Media Player, while an auxiliary display device may be designed to display email messages, notifications and calendar data from a program such as Microsoft® Outlook.
However, with some devices, enabling the device to work with a given program may be complicated for some users. For example, to allow an existing application program's content to appear on an auxiliary display, the user will need to enable the application programs that provide this content to communicate with the auxiliary display device. This may require making changes to the registry, which is a somewhat dangerous activity when performed by users. A control panel applet or the like is one safe way the user can enable application programs to work with a device, however this is not necessarily an easy task, as there are various types of devices that a user can add, each possibly having substantially different characteristics and requiring different types of application programs for the device to work properly. Moreover, the user may not yet have installed a particular application, and there is no way to pre-enable the application program for use with the device should the application program be installed later.